One of the few movies from 1977 that managed to make a name for itself under the shadow of the almighty Star Wars, Hal Needham's Smokey And The Bandit was a fun, free spirited movie about, well, running booze across state lines and messing with the cops. Watching it, the film doesn't really seem all that anti-establishment but the very premise of it flips 'the man' the finger and with that said, the movie will have you flipping the finger right alongside it, much like Sally Field does when she and Burt Reynolds pull up alongside that motorcycle cop towards the end of the movie. But let's start at the beginning….

Bo 'Bandit' Darville (Burt Reynolds) is a notoriously fast driver who has some experience in evading the police. As such, he's the perfect man for Big Enos Burdette (Pat McCormick) to hire to bring four hundred cases of Coors Beer from Texarkana across state lines into Atlanta where he hopes to use it in a celebration in his honor. Despite some needling from Little Enos Burdette (Paul Williams), Bandit takes the job for two reasons – the money is good, and he likes a challenge. He has the Burdettes shell out the coin for a new Trans-Am that he'll drive alongside the eighteen wheeler that will be driven by his right hand man, Cledus 'Snowman' Snow (Jerry Reed). Once the plan is motion, they're off with twenty-eight hours to get the job done.

They make it to the Coors warehouse in time, fill up the back of the truck with the suds, and off they go, figuring they've got this one nailed shut as easy as that. Along the way, Bandit scores a pretty young woman in a bride's dress, and he stops to pick her up. He finds out her name is Carrie (Sally Field) and she needs a ride but at first he's not sure what it is that she's running from. As time goes on, they become aware of a Texas Sheriff named Bufford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason) following them, even though they're not in his jurisdiction. As it turns out, Carrie, who Bandit nicknames Frog, left Justice's son at the alter and is trying to get away from them as they're insisting that she stick to her agreement and marry his dumb son, Junior (Mike Henry).

With time running out and a whole lot of cops on their tale, Bandit and Frog have to keep the cops away from Snowman and his dog Fred so that they can get the beer back to Burdette in time to make their agreement and win the bet, but with Bufford Justice on their tale and getting angrier by the second, it isn't going to be easy.

Smokey And The Bandit is not a complicated movie, in fact, it's more or less a ninety minute car crash with a brief romantic interlude or two and some bumbling cops scattered throughout but it's a fun film regardless. Burt Reynolds was at the top of his game in the late seventies and this is the film that really showed off his charisma and his charms better than anything he'd made before it. In fact, it's Reynolds interaction with the three other main performers – Sally Field, Jackie Gleason and Jerry Reed – that provides so much of the movies humor and wit. When Bandit interacts with Frog we see the sexual tension, when he interacts with Justice we see the snarky, smart ass attitude, and when Bandit interacts with Snowman we see the friendship and male bounding. This makes Bandit a really likeable lead, as we get to know a few different sides to him, all three of which are equally entertaining.

Gleason is also fantastic as Bufford T. Justice. He improvised a lot of his lines and added bits and pieces to the script and his knack for comedic timing and acidic wit is a bit part of what makes the humor work. Justice is a true bastard of a man, he doesn't care that Frog doesn't want to marry his son, he's only concerned about saving face after she humiliated him in front of the whole town. In fact, he puts his son down so often, going so far as to declare that 'there's no way you came from my loins, and the first thing I'm gonna do when we get home is punch your momma in the mouth!' that it fast becomes obvious that his chasing her down has nothing to do with his Junior's feeling whatsoever. The fact that Junior is too dumb to realize this doesn't make either of them anymore sympathetic and of course, this ensures that we're always rooting for Bandit, Snowman and Frog to evade the cops as the movie plays out, even if they are causing a whole lot of trouble along the way.

Hal Needham's direction is solid and his experience as a stunt coordinator shows in the countless car crashes, chases, high speed pursuits and jumps that are used throughout the movie. Needham would go on to work with Burt Reynolds a lot, in Hooper, in the sequel to this film, the two Cannonball Run movies, and Stroker Ace. The cinematography isn't flashy but it is effective and it captures all the action that the journey entails as well as Reynolds' and Field's facial expressions during some of their conversations quite well. Of course, the score and the three songs used throughout the movie, performed by Jerry Reed, fit the tone of the movie perfectly and the theme song, East Bound And Down, is now instantly identifiable (and was even recently covered by The Supersuckers).

The DVD

Video:

Smokey And The Bandit gets a very nice 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer on this DVD that, in short, looks great. There is some grain present and if you keep your eyes peeled you'll pick up on the odd speck on the image here and there, but these are noticeable only rarely and there's very little to complain about here in terms of the visuals. Color reproduction is strong and there's a very nice level of both foreground and background detail in the image. The reds don't bleed, which is important seeing as Burt Reynolds wears a red shirt throughout the film, and the black levels stay strong ensuring that the Trans-Am looks just as slick as Bandit himself. Flesh tones are lifelike and natural and there aren't any problems with mpeg compression artifacts to report. Edge enhancement and aliasing are noticeable in one or two scenes but again, they're not overpowering and they don't prove to be distracting. In terms of how it looks compared to the previous release, it's an improvement all around, the colors are better, the picture is cleaner, and while that disc looked good for the time, this one is simply a nicer presentation all around.

Sound:

Amazingly enough, you've got your choice of checking out the movie in a newly created Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix or in a DTS 5.1 Surround Sound mix with subtitles available in English, French and Spanish and closed captions available for the feature only in English. Unfortunately, Universal has opted not to include the original Dolby Digital Mono (which was included on the previous DVD) mix for whatever reason.

In terms of quality, the DTS track does edge out the Dolby Digital track in one department, and that's the engine sounds. The deeper, stronger bass of the DTS mix really does provide the car and truck engines with a whole lot of punch and the chase scenes sound fantastic. Channel separation is handled nicely with plenty of directional effects coming at you during the more action intensive moments, while dialogue remains clean and clear on both tracks. Background music and sound effects are properly balanced against the performers and Jerry Reed's theme song sounds great with plenty of distinctive twang.

Extras:

The main extra feature on this release is a twenty-minute documentary entitled Loaded Up And Truckin' – The Making Of Smokey And The Bandit in which director Hal Needham is interviewed alongside stars Burt Reynolds and Paul Williams. This is a pretty interesting look back at the origins of the film, with Needham and Reynolds having the most to say. Interestingly enough, Bufford T. Justice was based on a real police officer that Reynolds knew through his father and the premise for the film came from an experience that Needham had bringing Coors beer across state lines while making Gator a few years earlier. He wrote the script with Jerry Reed in mind for the lead figuring he could make a million dollar b-movie but when Reynolds came on board, the project got a whole lot bigger. They discuss Jackie Gleason's character and his tendency to ad lib a few of his lines, and there are some cool press conference/archival clips in here of Reynolds and Gleason from 1977 in which Reynolds states that the movie is 'a lot like sex' in that it 'makes you feel good.' Reynolds also covers how Sally Field was his choice for Frog, not the studios, and how Jerry Reed came up with the idea for the now famous theme song so quickly. This was a pretty enjoyable featurette, this reviewer's only complaint being that it could have been longer and involved a few more participants.

A second featurette entitled Snowman, What's Your 20? is videotaped piece in which you ride shotgun with a 'real life trucker' and learn where some of the CB handles and slang came from that was used throughout the movie. This is pretty amusing and worth a watch as it provides a few laughs and also proves to be reasonably interesting at the same time.

While what Universal has given us is pretty decent, it would have been nice to get a Burt Reynolds/Hal Needham commentary track on the disc or to see Sally Field somehow involved in the supplements (if she'll talk about The Flying Nun it's probably a safe assumption that she'd be more than willing to talk about Smokey And The Bandit). It also would have been nice to see the trailer included on this DVD, but that's sadly not the case.

Final Thoughts:

While there definitely could have been more extra features included on this disc, Universal has done a really nice job with the presentation. Smoky And The Bandit looks and sounds terrific and the movie hasn't lost any of its hokey charm over the years. Recommended.